BRITAIN’S largest trade union has expressed alarm after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) scrapped guidance on how asbestos should be handled by workers.

Unite, which represents thousands of MoD contractors, says it was not consulted before the guidance was revoked — a move that the union discovered from the Morning Star.

It comes amid growing pressure on the MoD to come clean about how many of its personnel have been exposed to asbestos, particularly security guards at Ashchurch military base in Gloucestershire and retired maintenance workers who looked after Sea King helicopters.
 
An advisory saying that existing advice should be disregarded until it is replaced can be found on the government’s website, having appeared last Thursday.

But with Parliament now prorogued, Unite says no new guidance can be officially introduced until MPs return — which will happen in mid-October at the earliest.
 
The government advisory says: “Chapter 36 Asbestos (January 2016) … is currently being reviewed and no reference or use should be made of the currently published guidance therein.